I had an interesting dream last night (in retrospect) in which I awoke to find that my wife was not sleeping next to me. I got up to take my shower and such, and found her getting ready to go to work – very early. This would be unusual for her because her office doesn’t open until like 10:00am or so.

When I woke up for real, to the sounds of my alarm clock, the bed was indeed empty. But my wife wasn’t getting ready in the bathroom as I had imagined, she was sleeping in the floor outside of Balthazar’s room. So Amy had a bad day today that started some time in the wee-hours. Bummer.

In stark contrast, I got back on my narcolepsy medication today for the first time in over a year and I feel like 1,000,000 bucks! For the last several months, my narcolepsy seemed to have kicked into high gear. Seriously, since I turned 30 I felt like the disease had gained extra ferocity – no amount of sleep was getting me feeling awake. And if I got too little sleep (i.e. under 7 hours) I was practically useless.

In our household, you have my wife; the sleepless, and me; the sleepy. The crux of the issue is a small child. He goes through bouts of waking fits; either from dreams, growing pains, or just restlessness, in which he needs comfort from us. Because I’m practically in a coma when I sleep and she’s a light sleeper by nature, she’s commonly the one to wake up and tend to his nighttime needs. Dicey situation. It’s only a matter of time before she’s had as little sleep as the human body will allow in a week and she passes out in exhaustion wherever it’s handy.

We’ll see how the new batch of meds works for me – maybe I can survive on less than 7 hours of sleep and not make my daily appearance to work as the walking dead. If that’s the case, I might even be able to wake up (be woken) to help out with the boy.

Resentments build in direct proportion to the lack of sleep of one partner compared to the ability to sleep of the other. Save a marriage. Stay on your medication. Oh, and by the way, may I borrow some of your pills? I have a lot to do and would like to not sleep for about 2 weeks. OK?
Love,
Mom
Drug-Seeker

Ahh, the ever puzzling delima of sleep. Something we all need, but once lost, can never be caught up on again. As far as the “growing pains” go: Madison struggled with these often during the ages of 4-5 1/2. The best thing we found that would help, strangly enough, was rubbing some rubbing alcohol on her joints, especially her knees, when she complained from the aching. Also a tsp or so of Children’s Tylenol or Children’s Motrin will help.
Best of luck with the sleeping! Just wait until there’s TWO children!!! haha
P.S. LOVE the sketch of you guys below!!!! I want one of my group! Great job!